ACTIVISM: With the Occupy Wall Street protests inspiring similar class protests in other cities in the U.S. (and gaining celebrity supporters like Keith Olbermann, Jeff Mangum, and Yoko Ono), anti-poverty activists are looking to start similar action on Bay Street this weekend with an Occupy Toronto Market Exchange (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the […]

]]>

The Witchdoctor and I, by Tania Iskiw. Acrylic on Canvas, 3ft x 4 ft.

ACTIVISM: With the Occupy Wall Street protests inspiring similar class protests in other cities in the U.S. (and gaining celebrity supporters like Keith Olbermann, Jeff Mangum, and Yoko Ono), anti-poverty activists are looking to start similar action on Bay Street this weekend with an Occupy Toronto Market Exchange (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same way, does it…). There’s a planning meeting happening this afternoon for those who are committed (and those who are just curious.) Berczy Park (Front Street & Yonge Street), 5 p.m., FREE.

ART: More than a dozen young artists have submitted for a new exhibition, Afterlife, opening tonight on the second floor of the Gladstone Hotel. Running over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, until Tuesday, October 11, the exhibit will be open from noon to 5 p.m. each day (and for tonight’s opening, from 7 p.m.–10 p.m.) Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West), 7 p.m., FREE.

MUSIC: In last Friday’s Urban Planner, Ohibjou was “competing” against several other bands who were all holding release shows on the same night. This evening, the orchestral pop band, whose new album Metal Meets is a bit more assertive than their lush prior work, play a FREE 7 p.m. in-store at Soundscapes (572 College Street). But once again, they aren’t the only ones; over at the new location for Sonic Boom (“Sexy Nerd Girl” gives a short tour here), legendary punk rocker Joe “Shithead” Keithley is also doing an in-store and Q&A. Sonic Boom (782 Bathurst Street), 7 p.m., FREE.

COMEDY: Comically belligerent redhead Cole Osborne has returned to Toronto from sailing the high seas on a Second City tour ship, and he’s reuniting with his Punch Drysdale pal Norm Sousa onstage tonight. How are the two going to celebrate? By drinking a two-four of beer in approximately an hour (while attempting comedy), with a few pals, like musical guest Donovan Wood. Sousa is also hosting the 8 p.m. show of Catch 23 Improv (and we assume, though we could be wrong, he’ll be doing that part of the evening sober). Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), 11 p.m., PWYC.

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.

CORRECTION: October 7, 2011, 10:39 AM This article originally stated that Joe Keithley was performing at Rotate This, rather than Sonic Boom.

From left to right, Pat Thornton, Bob Banks, and Jason DeRosse are PB & J. Detail of a photo by Richard Young.

“Sketch promises laughs, whereas improv doesn’t promise anything, because it’s a theatrical experiment—you can have a very successful improv scene that isn’t particularly funny. We can’t.”
Both Pat Thornton and Bob Banks laugh out loud at Thornton’s admission. We’re talking with the two comics, two-thirds of “sketchprov” troupe PB & J, about their monthly show’s upcoming special edition, “The Easter Funny.”

Both men have just come off stage from doing substantial stand-up sets at a new showcase to talk about their hybrid show and how the three of them (Jason DeRosse rounds out the trio) combined their comedy backgrounds to create it.
“In an improv scene, Jason and I would build a barn, and then Pat would tear the barn down, which would get a huge laugh,” explains Banks (and indeed, his example elicits a roar of laughter from Thornton), talking about their early days of working together. “But then, we’d be, ‘Oh, quick, build the barn back up, because otherwise the challenge hasn’t been met.'”
“Now, we start out with the premise—’three guys in a barn,’ say—so once that’s been established, we can just pull out our joke guns and go crazy on the audience.”
The three performers come from fairly different comedy backgrounds. Banks is a experienced improviser, originally from Winnipeg, who’s an alumnus of improv troupe Big in Japan, and a founding member of Mantown; so is DeRosse, who has a long-standing association with Second City. Thornton, a founding member of The Sketchersons and the creator of the Comedy Network’s Hotbox series, had an extensive background in stand-up and sketch but very little as an improviser before hooking up with Banks and DeRosse.
“I just liked to stand there and say jokes in the early days, and all the responsibility was on [Bob and Jason] to build a scene and story around that. They just wanted me to move out of the way so they could do other things [laughs]. But we slowly figured it out; my number-one agenda, early on, was always about getting lots of laughs from the crowd; we still do that, but now we’re delivering a show that’s good improv across the board, with more ‘jokes per minute’ than most improv shows.”
Both funny men credit the structure of the show, and the supporting team off-stage, for honing their comedic sensibilities. “Mark Andrada [our technical director] takes our show to another level,” says Thornton. “Because it’s a sketch revue within an improv show, the lights are crucial to accentuate the laughs”—and to stop and start new scenes, which Andrada will sometimes do with a blackout just a few sentences in. “He’s working as hard as us at making the audience, and us, laugh.”
Banks agrees: “Mark’s our director on the fly. We also have a musical director, Chris New, who’s a very funny comedian himself. So they’re both improvising too, and we never know what they’re going to pull out…it keeps the whole show on its toes.”
“We start with a bunch of sketch titles,” explains Thornton, “with blanks that the audience fills in, in the first few minutes of the show.” Once all the suggestions have been taken, the three rely on Andrada—and their host, “Batman”—to choose the order of the sketches and who will be taking the audience’s challenges. Sometimes, they’ll play to each other’s strengths; other times, they’ll try and trip each other up.
“We love making each other shine, but we also love hanging each other out to dry—because it’s funny, and really, two sides of the same thing: make the best of this moment, and if you fail, that’ll be hilarious, too,” chortles Thornton.
The trio have been on tour before; last year, they embarked on the “Milk and Cookies” tour, travelling across Ontario, Quebec, and the Prairies. “We’d invite the audience to bring cookies, and we’d bring the milk, and do a really relaxed show, in a comfortable environment,” says Banks. “Now, we’re building a rock-solid show and format that we could tour North America with, that will be our calling card.”PB & J’s “The Easter Funny” Sketchprov Show, with guests Sara Hennessey, Punch Drysdale, and Jay McCarroll, plays at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, at Bread and Circus (299 Augusta Avenue) Tickets are $10.

]]>http://torontoist.com/2011/04/pb_j_preview/feed/0Sound Tracks: “Aerobics in Space” by Maylee Toddhttp://torontoist.com/2010/10/sound_tracks_aerobics_in_space_by_maylee_todd/
http://torontoist.com/2010/10/sound_tracks_aerobics_in_space_by_maylee_todd/#commentsFri, 01 Oct 2010 15:45:00 +0000http://torontoist.com/2010/10/sound_tracks_aerobics_in_space_by_maylee_todd/Believe it or not, music videos still exist. Sound Tracks trolls the internet to find the best and the worst of local artists’ new singles and the good, bad, or otherwise noteworthy visuals that accompany them. We’ve written about Maylee Todd‘s videos before, and how she’s partnered with indie videographers like Southern Souls and Live […]]]>

Believe it or not, music videos still exist. Sound Tracks trolls the internet to find the best and the worst of local artists’ new singles and the good, bad, or otherwise noteworthy visuals that accompany them.We’ve written about Maylee Todd‘s videos before, and how she’s partnered with indie videographers like Southern Souls and Live in Bellwoods—she’s had recurring motifs, like elaborate and out-there costumes and interstellar travel. Now, thanks in part to a MuchFACT grant, Todd has pulled out all the stops with a comic romp for “Aerobics in Space.”
The video, directed by J. Lee Williams, is a delightfully zany pastiche of TV references—primarily the live action 60’s Batman show. There’s also a purposefully shoddy Mork & Mindy–style sitcom interlude, featuring Punch Drysdale‘s Norm Sousa; Second City‘s Inessa Frantowski plays a mystic Great Gazoo/Tinkerbell character who keeps the plot moving; and there’s a robot mayor whose victimization prompts Todd’s avenging crusade.
At an interstellar dance bar (in actuality, Parkdale’s Wrongbar) frequented by her own rogues gallery, Todd lays the smackdown on her enemies—among them Gentleman Reg (who’s the first to be socked by our caped heroine) and Naomi Snieckus. While a lion-clad lounge singer—Todd again—and her satyr band keep the tune bouncing along, the bar fills with BIFs and POWs as our heroine pummels the outlandishly dressed villains one by one.
The wild costume sequences are supplemented by retro Saturday morning cartoon sequences, complete with mock wavy lines from a shaky cable signal, and there are plenty more surprises we don’t want to ruin, including a reveal at the end of the evil unseen mastermind, a la Inspector Gadget‘s Doctor Claw, and a promise of more to come. We hope so.